Ultimate Authority: Revisited

On the April 12th podcast of “The Christian Worldview” with David Wheaton, David interviewed Paul Taylor, the author of the book “Don’t Miss the Boat”. It’s a book about the flood account in scripture and how it is relevant today. (I have not read the book.) The interview was fascinating and it has compelled me to add the book to my reading list.

Anyway, I just had to share a quote made by Paul Taylor which I found to be extremely edifying. The point he makes parallels a recent blog I wrote Ultimate Authority: The Presupposition which encourages us (Christians) not to forget what our ultimate authority is: the Bible.

During the interview, David Wheaton asked Paul Taylor regarding the Genesis flood:

“Give me two of your best evidences that this worldwide flood actually occurred. What would you say?”

Paul Taylor:

“Two of the best evidences? Because I only have one really good evidence, which is that God told us that’s the way it was in the Bible. It’s very important to start with that because when you see, when you realize that you don’t start with believing that God exists and that the Bible is true, all the evidences that we have fall into place from that. I don’t actually offer evidences to people. I just show them that these things fit with what the Bible says, and use that as a starting point. And after all, the atheist worldview doesn’t actually hold water anyway, because if they don’t believe that God exists, then they don’t have any basis for knowing anything at all. As soon as they say what they know, they always cast doubt on things, saying, “we can’t know anything for sure.” But if you can’t know anything for sure, then don’t know anything at all. We know things for sure, not because we know everything, but we know somebody who knows everything, and that’s God, and has chosen to reveal to us. My friend Carl Gerby put it this way, “You know, if I stood on top of mount Ararat, with an enormous wooden boat by the side of me and I’m leaning on it, and just carved into the wood of the boat it says, ‘Noah was here,’ he says that the best evidence for the fact that the flood happened and that the ark existed… WOULD STILL BE THE BIBLE.”

Amen, Paul Taylor!

We (Christians) must always be sensitive as to when to avoid evidential tangents by unbelievers when defending the Christian worldview. We must always stand on the foundation of God’s gift of presupposition: His Word.

Our job is not to convince, that is God’s job. Our job is to inform.

Colossians 2:8
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Luke 16:31
“He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. ’”